About Mimi
Whether delivering jaw-dropping solo sets, performing dazzling duets with sympathetic partners, or leading a hard-charging combo, Mimi is a consummate improviser who seizes the imagination of her listeners with her passion, soul, and unerring ear for beauty.
" Beyond her passion and technical virtuosity, Fox plays with a profundity that only results from a lifetime of commitment and total immersion in one's art. " - Guitar Player Magazine
Internationally renowned guitarist/composer/recording artist Mimi Fox has been cited in numerous Downbeat Magazine International Critics Polls and has been recognized by writers and colleagues alike as one of the most eloquent guitarists on today's scene. In one of many feature stories, Jazz Times hailed Mimi as "a blazing fret master who combines be-bop infused lines with an abundance of soul...spinning solos that unfurl with surprise twists like expertly tailored short stories. " In a further nod to Mimi's guitar artistry, and in conjunction with Heritage Guitars' 30th anniversary, the historic Kalamazoo guitar company has rolled out the Mimi Fox Artist Signature model.
Mimi has performed/recorded with some of the music world's most commanding players, including fellow guitarists Charlie Byrd, Stanley Jordan, and Charlie Hunter, Grammy-nominated saxophonists Branford Marsalis, David Sanchez, Houston Person, and the late Don Lanphere, vocalists Tierney Sutton, Kevin Mahogany, and Janis Siegel (Manhattan Transfer), B3 organ masters Joey DeFrancesco, Barbara Denerlein and Dr. Lonnie Smith, and powerhouse drummers Billy Hart and Terri Lyne Carrington. She has also shared the stage with legends Stevie Wonder, and Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul, and Mary) and toured as a featured artist with Patty Larkin's Vanguard Records-produced La Guitara project. Her YouTube videos have received hundreds of thousands of views.
New Book
Mimi is excited to have one of her compositions included in New Standards/101 lead sheets by Women Composers! Curated by Grammy winning musician Terri Lyne Carrington and published by Berklee press, the new volume has received universal praise. Read NY Times article here.
Terri Lyne Carrington, Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, has curated a wide range of jazz compositions written by women composers, from obscure to popular, historic to current, blues to bebop, and beyond in this important collection. These compositions are supplementary and alternatives to the "jazz standard" canon that has served students, teachers and professionals throughout the development of jazz music.
Latest Press
Flying Solo: Techniques for a Lush Solo Guitar Vocabulary
- by Mimi Fox
Playing solo guitar is a challenging but extremely rewarding pursuit. It’s also an important aspect of becoming a masterful jazz guitarist, because all of the skills that are required for solo guitar are essential to developing a complete understanding of the harmonic, rhythmic and melodic possibilities of this majestic instrument.
I found studying classical guitar for several years to be a great foundation for all of my subsequent solo jazz guitar development. In my practicing today, I still spend time playing through Bach, Villa Lobos, Vivaldi, Mozart, etc. This music is highly enjoyable to play, and it’s a great way to develop your ear and your technique, as well as strengthening your sight-reading.
MIMI FOX/This Bird Still Flies:
A solo guitar tour de force by one of the preeminent practitioners of our age, Fox gets back to her acoustic roots and takes you back to the 70s when solo guitar records like this that made your jaw drop came along a lot more frequently than once in a blue moon. A master class and great music all at once, this is a sterling example of why so many of us have guitars in the basement in their cases gathering dust. We can't give it up but we're too blinded by the light to compete with this---even just for fun. Smoking throughout.
ACOUSTIC FLIGHT PATH
ACCLAIMED JAZZ GUITARIST MIMI FOX TALKS ABOUT HER NEW ALL-ACOUSTIC ALBUM, THIS BIRD STILL FLIES, AND HER INVENTIVE APPROACH TO COMPOSING, ARRANGING AND IMPROVISING
by Shawn Persinger
When we last wrote about internationally renowned guitar virtuoso and music educator Mimi Fox (summer 2018), she was still enjoying the honeymoon phase with her new Builder’s Edition K14ce. As Fox shared at the time, she was returning to her acoustic roots and looking forward to using her new Taylor on an all-acoustic album she was getting ready to record. The release,This Bird Still Flies, is now available, and listeners are bound to be enthralled by this latest installment of Fox’s improvisational magic.
Mimi Fox on A Guitar Player Podcast
Today, we cruise the 'copter up the Bay Area, north of San Francisco, and drop in on renowned jazz virtuoso MIMI FOX. Playing both acoustic (a Taylor steel-string) and electric (her signature-model Heritage jazz box), Mimi reveals some of her favorite approaches to improvisation, song arranging, and performing.
TrueFire Live Video Cast
Mimi Fox: This Bird Still Flies (Origin)
A review of the guitarist's first full-length acoustic outing
Nothing humbles a jazz guitarist accustomed to playing a solidbody or archtop instrument quite like an acoustic flattop, even if it’s a top-tier Taylor cutaway. There are, of course, musicians who can switch-hit with deceptive ease—Pat Metheny, for one—and now the same can be said of Mimi Fox with the release of this, her first full-length acoustic outing.
It’s a dazzler from start to finish, a resonant mix of pop, jazz, blues, funk, and Americana that reaffirms Fox’s remarkable artistry in a fresh light, thanks in no small part to her skills as a composer, and perhaps even more so as an audacious arranger. Longtime fans won’t be surprised by the virtuosity she often displays while deploying fluid arpeggios or exploiting the Taylor’s robust dynamic range with hammer-ons, pull-offs, palm-muting, hand percussion, chordal propulsion, and crisp, expertly modulated flatpicking excursions.
Mimi Fox’s Jazzy Cover of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” + “Blue Bossa” Acoustic Guitar Sessions
Mimi Fox is uniquely positioned to wow you with her playing, and then pull the curtain back and show you how she did it. And her jazz guitar chops and her teaching pedigree (Berklee College of Music, Yale, the California Jazz Conservatory) are on full display in this Acoustic Guitar Session.
Watch Mimi’s take on the The Beatles classic “Blackbird,” which flies all up and down the neck with a series of harmonizations, arpeggio inversions, and other great jazz guitar techniques. She also gives a mini-lesson on how she arranged and plays this piece, so get your pencils (and guitars) out! Then, she performs and explains her take on the jazz classic “Blue Bossa.”
Video Lesson: A Jazzy Arrangement of ‘America the Beautiful’
The simple yet evocative melody of “America the Beautiful” has always moved me. When I was preparing to record my most recent album, This Bird Still Flies (Origin Records), I wanted to come up with an arrangement of “America” that would be fresh and personal while retaining the original song’s beauty and simplicity. As an arranger and improviser, there were many routes I could have taken, but I chose to keep the tempo relatively slow and stately, so that the melody would really stand out. And while there are a few tricky passages, I stayed pretty close to the fundamental harmony, so it shouldn’t be too hard to play. I hope you will enjoy learning my interpretation of “America” as much as I enjoyed arranging it.
Newest Project
MIMI FOX B-3 TRIO/ One For Wes
Honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of Wes Montgomery, guitarist Mimi Fox presents a new project featuring her original pieces and well crafted arrangements of Montgomery's famous compositions. After touring and recording with such organ masters as the late great Joey DeFrancesco and Barbara Dennerlein, Mimi imbues the iconic B3 sound with dazzling virtuosity in a show that runs the gamut from greasy blues and funk, to luscious ballads and blazing bebop. Joining Mimi in the trio are Brian Ho and Lorca Hart, both of whom have played with many jazz legends and together with Mimi form an all-star group.
Mimi has been hailed by Guitar Player Magazine as “a prodigious talent who has not only mastered the traditional forms but has managed to reinvigorate them.” Internationally renowned guitarist/composer/recording artist Mimi Fox has been cited in numerous Downbeat Magazine International Critics Polls and has been recognized by writers and colleagues alike as one of the most eloquent guitarists on today's scene.
Born in New York City, Fox started playing drums at nine and guitar when she was ten. When she was fourteen, she bought her first jazz album—John Coltrane’s Giant Steps—and the music changed the course of her life. She began touring right out of high school and eventually settled in the San Francisco Bay area where she became a sought-after player.
Fox has performed and recorded with many jazz greats, including fellow guitarists Charlie Byrd and Charlie Hunter; Grammy-nominated saxophonists Branford Marsalis and Houston Person; vocalists Abbey Lincoln and Diana Krall; and powerhouse drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. She has also shared the stage with music legend Stevie Wonder. Mimi has toured the world, playing such major festivals as the Montreal, Guinness Cork, Perth International, and Jamaica Spice Jazz Festivals. Stateside, she has headlined at elite venues such as Monterey/Newport Festivals, The Blue Note, The Kennedy Center, Yoshi’s and the Great American Music Hall among countless others.
Mimi has released 12 CDs as a leader including her last highly acclaimed outing This Bird Still Flies which received 4 stars from Downbeat Magazine and of which Jazz Times said: “Remarkable…a dazzler from start to finish.”
Listen to sample tracks.
To purchase:
Previous Projects
Mimi's new all acoustic CD is available now!
"A prodigious talent who has not only mastered the traditional forms but has managed to reinvigorate them."
- Guitar Player Magazine
As a virtuosic improviser who’s collaborated with many of jazz’s greatest figures, Mimi Fox has earned her spot in the jazz guitar pantheon. But the jazz tradition is only one of the powerful currents feeding her music. With her 11th album as a leader or co-leader, This Bird Still Flies, Fox delivers a seamless but far-ranging album that’s breathtaking it its beauty, emotional immediacy and stylistic reach. Slated for release on Origin Records on Feb. 15, 2019, the all acoustic recording captures a commanding artist in full - transforming folk tunes, jazz standards, original compositions and popular songs into exquisitely crafted improvisational vehicles.
Over the years she’s performed and recorded with an intergenerational who’s who of jazz guitar stars, including Charlie Byrd, Kenny Burrell, Mundell Lowe, Charlie Hunter and Stanley Jordan. Cited in numerous Downbeat Magazine International Critics Polls, the Bay Area guitarist is recognized by colleagues and writers as one of the most eloquent six-string improvisers on the scene. While she’s best known for wielding her namesake Heritage Guitar Mimi Fox Signature model arch-top, spinning solos that unfurl with surprise twists like expertly tailored short stories, Fox is equally spellbinding on six and 12-string acoustic guitars.
Recently signed by Taylor Guitars as an endorsing “partner,” she’s increasingly returned to her acoustic roots. As with all great musicians, Fox’s creative output is inextricably linked to her life off stage, and This Bird Still Flies is a dispatch from the other side of rough waters. A successful fight against breast cancer coupled with a devastating breakup left her determined to pursue her musical vision with renewed focus and intensity.
Listen to sample tracks.
ALBUM WITH SAN FRANCISCO STRING TRIO
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt. Peppers
REVIEW FROM JAZZ WEEKLY
"In celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ ground breaking Sgt Pepper album, Mads Tolling/vi, Mimi Fox/g and Jeff Denson/b string together the material from that records and add new ideas and tones.
There’s fun with and without frets as the team swings nostalgia on “When I’m Sixty-Four” and Tolling is Grappelli-rich with a wide vibrato. The team delivers pizzicato delights on “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and gets exotic with “Within You Without You.” Denson adds some nice vocals on the Bartok inspired “Fixing A Hole” and the string chirping “ Getting Better” while “A Day In The Life” is haughtingly intimate. A complement to the landmark rock session."
In a nod to Mimi's guitar artistry, and in conjunction with Heritage Guitars' 30th anniversary, the historic Kalamazoo guitar company has rolled out the Mimi Fox Artist Signature model.
